Free Speech Under Assault in the Capitol

Walker’s police arrest peaceful protesters and observers

“Scott Walker and his police force are showing
increasing hostility toward almost every aspect of the First Amendment,” The Progressive’s editor Matthew
Rothschild said last week.

He should know.

On Aug. 15, Rothschild was interviewing peaceful
protesters at the daily Solidarity Sing Along in the state Capitol when a State
Capitol Police officer arrested him, knowing full well that he was working as a
reporter and just doing his job.

Rothschild was handcuffed and escorted to the
basement, then moved to the Dane County jail, where he was booked,
fingerprinted and had his mug shot taken before he was charged with “resisting
or obstructing.”

He was released on a $300 bail and will plead not
guilty on Sept. 23.

Rothschild is just one high-profile victim of the
Walker administration’s attack on the vital First Amendment rights to assemble,
speak freely, protest the government and maintain a free press.

“That’s the bigger point—just how reactionary the
Scott Walker government is becoming,” Rothschild said. “How hostile they are to
basic American freedoms.”

Among the roughly 300 people arrested are senior
citizens, a union fireman, a teenager, and a bystander on the second floor
holding a small sign saying, “I am observing only.”

Even state Rep. Sondy Pope (D-Cross Plains) was
threatened with arrest when she stood a few feet from her office on the balcony
with Tia Nelson, former Gov. Gaylord Nelson’s daughter, to watch the Sing Along
a floor below them.

“This begs so many insane questions,” Pope said. “Is
humming OK? Toe tapping? The equivalent of clapping? This is insanity.”

Pope said the administration hasn’t offered up a
written policy on who could be subject to arrest and why.

“There are no rules, there are no guidelines,” Pope
said. “They haven’t issued the manual yet. If there is one, they haven’t shared
it with the public. The questions aren’t answered. The emails aren’t responded
to. And it changes every day.”

The Department of Administration, which oversees the
State Capitol Police, didn’t respond to the Shepherd’s
request to comment for this article.

‘You Screw Us, We’ll Multiply’

The crackdown on the Solidarity Singers, who have
sung protest songs in the Capitol rotunda each weekday noon since Walker
introduced his collective bargaining bill in January 2011, intensified in July,
after U.S. District Judge William Conley temporarily halted Walker’s new
permitting rules in the state Capitol. Walker had wanted groups of more than
four people to apply for a permit to assembly in the Capitol. Conley ruled that
groups of fewer than 20 people didn’t need a permit to assemble. He’ll take up
the case, which was brought by the ACLU of Wisconsin, in January 2014.

The Solidarity Singers and their supporters haven’t
applied for a permit to assemble. The Capitol police, now under the direction
of Chief David Erwin, have issued about 300 citations since Conley’s decision.

Rothschild said it’s unthinkable to ask the singers
or observers to take out a permit, since it isn’t an organized group and a
permit comes with potential financial liabilities for additional security and
damages.

“If it’s a right it’s a right and you shouldn’t have
to get a permit,” Rothschild said.

He said last week that the show of force has
ratcheted up the tension in the Capitol and he worries that the police are
itching for a confrontation. (On Monday, one arrest got physical.) But instead
of discouraging the protestors, the Walker crackdown has increased their
numbers, Rothschild said.

“This ad hoc group was dwindling in numbers,”
Rothschild said. “And they would have continued to dwindle if Scott Walker
hadn’t cracked down on them. Now, as the saying goes, ‘You screw us, we’ll
multiply.’ And that’s what’s happened.”

Pope said the arrests have nothing to do with public
safety and everything to do with politics.

“Clearly, it’s about intimidation,” Pope said.
“Clearly, it’s about silencing the voices of the people against Scott Walker
and his administration and the Republican legislators. There is no doubt that
is what this is about. And that is all the more reason to oppose this.”

But Rothschild wondered if Walker wasn’t getting a
reward for silencing his critics.

“Maybe the goal is Scott Walker is raising money
from his right-wing paymasters like the Koch brothers for every single arrest
that the state Capitol police are making,” Rothschild said. “I have no evidence
of that but it’s not an illogical assumption. Otherwise, why would he keep doing
it?”